Machine generated contents note: pt. I General introduction -- 1.Plato and the Republic -- Historical background -- The life of Plato -- Platonic dialogue -- Literary antecedents -- The Republic -- Suggestions for further reading -- pt. II The argument of the Republic -- 2.What is justice? (Book 1) -- The peculiar nature of Book 1 -- Cephalus (328b-331d) -- Polemarchus (331e-335e) -- Suggestions for further reading -- 3.What good is justice? (Books 1-2) -- Thrasymachus (336b-354c) -- Glaucon and Adeimantus -- Suggestions for further reading -- 4.Justice in the city (Books 2-4) -- The city and the soul (368b-369b) -- The first and second cities (369b-373e) -- The guardians (373e-412b) -- Class relations and the justice of a city (412b-434c) -- Suggestions for further reading -- 5.Justice in the soul (Book 4) -- Justice in the soul (434d-445e) -- Further discussion -- Suggestions for further reading -- 6.Radical politics (Books 5-7) -- The digression --

Contents note continued: Two waves of paradox (451c-471c) -- Philosopher-rulers (471c-502c) -- Philosophers in the good city (502c-541b) -- Suggestions for further reading -- 7.Metaphysics and epistemology (Books 5-7) -- The problem with particulars (475e-480a) -- The Form of the Good (503e-518b) -- An education in metaphysics (521c-539d) -- Review of Books 5-7 -- Suggestions for further reading -- 8.Injustice in the soul and in the city (Books 8-9) -- Degenerate forms of the city and the soul (544a-576a) -- Three comparisons between just and unjust lives (576b-587b) -- Conclusion (587c-592b) -- Suggestions for further reading -- 9.Art and immortality (Book 10) -- The argument against all poetry (595a-608b) -- More consequences of justice and injustice (608c-621d) -- Suggestions for further reading -- pt. III General issues -- 10.Plato's ethics and politics -- What is the calculating part of the soul (reason)? -- Postscript on two philosophers --

Contents note continued: Is the Republic's political philosophy paternalistic? -- Is Plato a theorist of totalitarian government? -- 11.Plato's metaphysics and epistemology -- How do the Republic's treatments of Forms compare to one another? -- What sorts of properties have Forms associated with them? -- 12.Plato's abuses and uses of poetry -- How does the early censorship of poetry in Books 2 and 3 compare to the final rejection of all artistic imitation? -- How is Plato's view of art related to his view of beauty? -- How can the rejection of poetry be squared with Plato's own use of literary devices, myths, and images? -- Aristotle on Plato and poetry -- 13.The afterlife of the Republic -- Plato in later antiquity -- The Republic in later antiquity -- The Republic in modernity -- A last word -- Suggestions for further reading.